Museum of Paleontology
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
bmw@uclink2.berkeley.edu

I've been working for the past year or so on designing exhibits for our virtual museum. I mean, mammals and dinosaurs are all very well, but give me a fungus, a jellyfish, or a slug any old day. Right? Right! Here's a link to a new exhibit that I haven't finished; it's not "ready for prime time," but check it out and tell me what you think.

A graduate student in my fourth year, I work on integrated approaches to the paleobiology of late Precambrian (Vendian) soft- bodied organisms, with occasional excursions into the Cambrian Period. I have work in progress on their systematics (i.e. their place in the history of metazoan life) and ecology. A new direction for my work is the taphonomy of soft- bodied organisms: how, and under what conditions, can such organisms form lasting fossils? What does that tell us about the morphology of such organisms, and about the environments in which they lived and died?

A second line of research that I pursue is the study of microfossils of various ages to be found in amber.

My field work has taken me to Russia twice so far. You can see from the picture that transportation to fossil sites in Russia is modern and very convenient, departing daily from downtown Moscow.

When not in Russia, I've been known to do fieldwork in California, Nevada, Mississippi, and Mexico. One of these days I'll get my CV up here.

Bats: R Throws: R

Check out my hot list. . . CAUTION: Great big GIF image. . . pretty, though. . .

. . . or peruse the tell-all, uncensored home page of a certain colleague. . . or of another colleague in the math department. . .